Programs > Student Internships
12-week programs for students working in areas that advance our mission.
AIER’s Internships are unparalleled professional opportunities for students considering careers in economic research, academia, or the private sector. They provide college students and recent graduates the opportunity to work closely with staff on projects that align with both their interests and AIER’s mission. Whether it’s contributing to scholarly research, policy analysis, or editorial writing, our interns gain invaluable exposure.
Our interns have leveraged their experiences to launch careers at organizations like The World Bank, The Institute for Justice, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and many other research institutes and companies across the world. A significant number of our former interns now teach and research at well-respected universities across the country.
Research
At the core of the AIER internship program is a self-developed research project, in which each intern develops their research interest into the foundation of an academic conference presentation and/or journal article. Interns also learn how to effectively communicate their results to both the scholarly community and the general public.
While building out their project, interns are coached on how to develop research ideas, how to ask and justify interesting and important research questions, select an appropriate methodology, present their findings to scholars and peers, and receive critical feedback.
At the end of their internship, each intern presents their final product to AIER staff and visiting scholars and receives valuable feedback on further development. They leave not only with a research product, but a new understanding of what engaging in deep, careful, and detailed analysis of issues relevant to the life and liberty of individuals – not just to academic discussion – entails.
Workshops
Through a series of workshops, interns learn and practice the essentials of academic and popular writing, various research methods, fundamental and advanced techniques in econometrics, economic analysis through AIER economic indicators and Bloomberg terminal data, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency trading, and more.
The workshops are led by experts from AIER and related organizations and are generally conducted face-to-face, so individualized feedback and mentoring is prioritized.
Upcoming Dates
Summer 2025: May 26th through August 8th, 2025.
Application period: November 15th, 2024 – March 1st, 2025
Fall 2025: August 24th through November 4th, 2025.
Application period: February 18th – May 2nd, 2025
Details
Compensation: AIER interns are paid $15.00 per hour.
Accommodations, meals, and travel: Housing is provided in AIER’s beautiful Stonehouse or cottages on campus, close to the picturesque town of Great Barrington. Lunch is provided every workday, and AIER covers travel expenses to and from campus, ensuring interns can fully focus on their professional and academic growth.
Curriculum: A robust reading-and-discussion curriculum is the basis of the AIER internship. Interns are presented with selections of leading academic writing on Public Choice analysis, the history of the Great Enrichment, US Debt and monetary policy, and the importance of property rights, among other topics.
In a series of seminar-style discussions led by our AIER researchers, they develop their understanding of the ideas and principles behind the texts, and build an intellectual toolkit to bring to bear on economic problems in their future professional and/or academic careers.
“As a research intern at AIER, you won’t be assigned to tedious intern duties; during my three months at AIER, I helped gather data, perform statistical analysis, and write op-eds on public policy with scholars and on my own. At AIER, you are treated like a serious thinker and expected to live up to this high (and reasonable) standard while receiving attentive and kind mentorship from their resident economists.”
Jack Nicastro, 2021 Intern
Join AIER this summer as an intern.
You will leave not only with a research product but also with a new understanding of what it means to engage in deep, careful, and detailed analysis of issues that impact the lives and liberties of individuals.
